The Akaviri Assassin: Coming To Morrowind
by robert.taylor
Summary: The first of a few short stories chronicling the journeys of Silas, an assassin from the distant continent of Akavir. This one will be short, and the other stories will not deal too much with the main story of Morrowind. Please enjoy and review.
1. Chapter 1

Ch. 1

_This land is so much different from Akavir. I don't like it, even though I despised Akavir also, and I've no idea why that foolish Emperor would send me here. His royal edict had gotten me out of that stupid prison, so I guess I should be thankful for that. That foolish human at the bar in the Imperial City had it coming, daring to draw his puny blade at me for sitting in his chair. Yes, I killed the human, I have pride enough to not stand when a blade is drawn against me, I kill whomever is foolish enough to threaten me like that, however strong or weak they are. Needless to say that was my first lesson traveling into the Empire secretly after fleeing my lifetime of servitude in Akavir. My Lord would often tell how his Tsaesci brethren had taken over this Empire ages ago, and as I looked around the Imperial City for the short time I was there, I could see the ancient reminders of the presence of the Tsaesci in that place so long ago, but those reminders were mostly forgotten by the humans, elves, and beast-men living there. I won't deny, killing that human was a mistake, and I am not prone to making many mistakes, what with my age and experience, but I hadn't taken into account the fact that I was in a land so very foreign to me. After my short tenure at the City's prison, I was put onto a ship headed for the province of Morrowind. This easternmost province has a history with Akavir, so naturally I had heard of it in my homeland. No, not homeland, more like home prison. I must shed these second thoughts of leaving Akavir, for here I am, in this foreign land, in Morrowind._

_The ship ride was rather peaceful, mostly because the only other passenger was some other prisoner, but that peacefulness had disintegrated over the night. That dream, vision, or whatever it was, made me wake suddenly in a cold sweat. Jiub, the other prisoner on the ship talked to me as I woke, and told me that we had landed on the island of Vvardenfell, the volcanic isle that makes up the majority of the landmass of the Morrowind province. A guard had descended into the lower decks, where Jiub and I were, and instructed me to follow him off of the ship to be processed by the Census and Excise Office. As I emerged from the ship's hold, I was briefly blinded by the sun reflecting off the gentle waves of the water. I was led by another guard to the Census and Excise Office and was processed as an Imperial Citizen. The elderly human who was in charge greeted me as I entered, and then proceeded to build paperwork on me. My pride and my upbringing in the ranks of the army of the Tsaesci Lord Rash-kai'l had instilled values in me, one of the most important being honesty, so naturally I answered the elderly human's questions truthfully and honestly. I will always chuckle to myself when I remember the look on that human's face as I told him about my name and background. I told him, "I am Silas, and I used to be an assassin in the army of Tsaesci Lord Rash-kai'l in the land known as Akavir."_

_I am racially Dunmeri, a Dark Elf, like those who are native to Morrowind; however I was born and raised in the land of Akavir. My parents were slaves, who escaped from their Tsaesci master, however, shortly after I was born, agents of their master had found them and murdered them for their crime of escaping. The agents had brought me back to their Lord, who instructed that I would be raised personally by him. His name was Rash-kai'l, and he was of the Tsaesci, a vicious, cold-hearted race of snake-people who were the self-proclaimed masters of Akavir. Their viciousness and carelessness of all forms of life is only matched by their pride, and it is this pride that drives them to constantly fight one another. They amass armies of slaves and throw them at one another in hopes of destroying their competition so they could take over the land. I was raised to become an assassin for Lord Rash-kai'l, and while it is the best possible position in an army of a Tsaesci Lord, it still meant slavery and servitude for life. Many long years had I served Rash-kai'l, performing my duties as professionally as I could, and still I had sought the one unattainable thing in that land for any who are not of the snake-people: freedom. I was foolish to think that I could win freedom from my slavery, yet longer and longer I had performed any duty my Lord would ask of me, despising him more and more every time I saw his golden face, his sneering, cruel, lipless mouth, and his cold, slanted eyes. Eventually I gained my chance for freedom, however without approval of my master. I had successfully killed 3 slave-generals of a rival army, and as I was making my way back to the stronghold of my master, I realized that if I were to return, I would surely make my last mistake as I looked in the face of the being I hated most in this life. I couldn't kill him, even though I wanted to so badly, so I did what my parents had done and I fled. I went to the coast and acquired a boat and sailed over the sea. I had wound up in Niben Bay, in the central Imperial province of Cyrodiil. I travelled to the place where I believed I could get the most information on this new land, the Imperial City itself._

_While I learned many valuable bits of information there, I was wholly stunned by the difference between Cyrodiil and Morrowind. As I exited the Census and Excise Office, I stepped into the small town of Seyda Neen. Breathing my first breath of complete freedom, I nearly retched at the horrid smell of the swamps and salt marshes surrounding this town. It seems I have much to learn as an outlander here in Morrowind, but it shouldn't be hard, especially to find this human, Cosades, but that will wait till later._


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2

_My skills, prowess, and professionalism were known quite well in the small area of Akavir that I operated in. I was Lord Rash-kai'l's best assassin, and when I was given a mission, I completed it. I used to have a wide array of weaponry to choose from, but now that I am here, I am expected to re-acquire weaponry. Ah, too bad this is not the case. As an assassin, I had a sort of magic-based surgery to ensure that I had at least one weapon on me at all times. I have a bag built into my own body that can store a small dagger of my choosing, and it is in this bag of holding, sewn into my upper back, that I found my most trusted dagger, Viper. Viper was given to me by my Lord after I had completed my first mission. It is laced with the fastest acting venom known, the venom of the Tsaesci. It was an almost heartfelt gift from a being that had no heart, but nevertheless, it had brought me luck in my life, and I felt glad that I had it now. The first news I had heard of here in Seyda Neen, was rumors of a smuggler hideout just out of town. I judged this as a good re-evaluation of my skill, so I will enter this smuggler hideout and do what I do best, what I was raised to do: kill._

Silas entered the tradehouse and was greeted by its proprietor, a High Elf named Arrille. "Welcome outlander, anything you require?" said Arrille. "What is the cheapest kind of armor you carry?" said Silas. "We have Chitin, it is made out of the shell of one type of the many crustacean type of creatures that inhabit Morrowind, and I believe just what you are looking for. It doesn't hold up to well in combat, but it is armor and will almost assuredly deflect a glance of a slightly underpowered foe." _This Altmer is a good salesman, maybe I ought not to ask his opinion on any goods I should buy, or he might assuredly try to sell me my own soul, and maybe for a cheap price_, thought Silas. "I'll take it." Silas only chose to buy the cuirass and boots of this Chitin armor, but it was just in case he let something slip a little too close to him, which he would never allow. He calmly walked to the outskirt of town and found the entrance to the hideout of the smugglers. He leaned his head in to see if he could hear anything on the other side of the door. Nothing. Closing his eyes and concentrating on the task ahead, he envisioned the many ways he had dispatched targets before. Stealth, Acrobatic techniques, and Speed were his strengths, and few could match them.

After taking a breath, he slowly and silently opened the door. He made sure to step in quickly and silently close the door behind, so as not to draw attention to anyone inside to the light of the outside shining into the cave. His eyes quickly adjusted to the minimal light of the cave, and saw the flickering light off the wall of the corridor he was in, indicating a fireplace around the corner. Taking silent, sure footsteps, he snuck forward and peeked around the corner. There was one person down by the fireplace, which he was looking at from above. He saw a gate at the farther end of the room, and after taking a quick evaluation; he judged that he could strike at the figure from behind and dispatch them without any attention. He fully rounded the corner and prepared to do his business. He jumped high in the air and landed square on the figures shoulders, driving Viper into the figure's neck. _Good, I didn't even give the target time to even comprehend that something was wrong_, thought Silas. Taking a key, a Chitin dagger, and some gold off of the body, he hid it under a boat which lay next to the fireplace. _I seriously doubt these smugglers are going to be any trouble for me_, thought Silas. He walked to the gate, still with his silent footsteps, and unlocked the gate with the key he had taken. He took a quick look and saw another gate on higher ground on the left, and a figure wearing a robe on the right, on significantly lower ground. He swiftly leapt onto a rock and went to his left, toward the other gate. He looked into the gate and saw three figures, without shirts and with bracers on their right arms. He could see the gate was locked, so he decided he would come back to this point later. He leapt back onto the rocks and made his way to a large rock, directly above the robed figure. He jumped down, directly behind his target, muffled his mouth and slid the Chitin dagger across its throat. He laid the figure down gently and looked forward, where he could see a small board walkway over an underground lake. He walked to the walkway, and as he took a step on it, he heard a whistle over his head. He then saw a figure throw something at him again. He calmly tilted his head to dodge the throwing star, spun around, and used the spinning momentum to let loose the Chitin dagger at his foe. The figure bent as the dagger plunged into its abdomen, and Silas wasted no time in charging forward. He jumped and did an aerial flip, landing behind the figure, and drove Viper home in the figure's back. _Too easy_.

He made his way back up the walkway to the gate and unlocked it. The three figures inside were beastmen, who stayed where they were and cowered as Silas entered. That's when the fact struck Silas, these beastmen were slaves. He walked to one, a Khajiit, a cat person native to the jungles of Elsweyr. The Khajiit, scared as he obviously was, stayed where he stood, and Silas quickly unlocked the bracer off of its arm. "We thanks you Sir," said the Khajiit, and Silas gave him the key to unlock the others' bracers, and then left the cave. Seeing the slaves had shook Silas to the core. He hated it. _No being should be a slave. The people who capture them and keep them as their personal objects know nothing of what I endured for so long. It is truly despicable to see more creatures forced into servitude_, thought Silas. He then told himself that should he see anymore slaves, they shall be freed. He looked at the stars and the twin moons, barely lighting the land. _Just the way I like it_. He walked back to town, feeling that the day went very well, and the night will go better once he got a drink or three in him.


End file.
